FltMgr Service Defaults in Windows 11
File System Filter Manager Driver.
Default Settings
| Startup type: | Boot |
| Display name: | FltMgr |
| Service name: | FltMgr |
| Service type: | filesys |
| Error control: | critical |
| Group: | FSFilter Infrastructure |
| Path: | %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\fltmgr.sys |
| Registry key: | HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\FltMgr |
Default Behavior
FltMgr is a file system driver. In Windows 11 it starts by the operating system Boot Loader before the Kernel initialization, as a part of the driver stack. If FltMgr fails to start, Windows 11 tries to record the error details into Event Log and restart the PC, using the Last Known Good configuration. If the Last Known Good configuration can't be used, Windows 11 startup process halts with a Stop error. If you disable or delete the FltMgr service, Windows 11 won't start.
Dependencies
If FltMgr doesn't work properly, the following services will not start:
- AppID Driver
- AppvStrm
- AppvVemgr
- AppvVfs
- Brokering File System
- File Information FS MiniFilter
- File System Dependency Minifilter
- FileCrypt
- Filetrace
- Microsoft Defender Antivirus Mini-Filter Driver
- Microsoft Security Events Component Minifilter
- Smartlocker Filter Driver
- Storage QoS Filter Driver
- UAC File Virtualization
- UevAgentDriver
- WIMMount
- Windows Bind Filter Driver
- Windows Cloud Files Filter Driver
- Windows Container Isolation
- Windows Overlay File System Filter Driver
- Wtd
Restore Default Startup Configuration of FltMgr
1. Run the Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Copy the commands below, paste them into the command window and press ENTER:
sc config FltMgr start= boot
sc start FltMgr
3. Close the command window and restart the computer.
The FltMgr service is using the fltmgr.sys file that is located in the C:\Windows\system32\drivers directory. If the file is removed or corrupted, read this article to restore its original version from Windows 11 installation media.